Imaging detectors for X-ray astronomy.

This work is concerned with the development of imaging detectors and was undertaken as part of a laboratory investigation into requirements for future experiments by the X-ray astronomy group of this university in its programme of study of solar and non-solar X-ray emission. Much of the work is concerned with the establishment of the operating characteristics of a new detector, the channel multiplier array, and its use as an imaging device. As a result of the investigations, new methods of one and two dimensional image dissection have been developed giving a spatial resolution comparable to that of photographic film. Together with recent advances in X-ray Imaging optics, these methods are of considerable interest in the rapidly expanding field of X-ray astronomy. In addition to work on channel arrays, a brief account is given of a spectroheliograph which is operating successfully on the 5th Orbiting Solar Observatory and which has been designed by Leicester University and University College, London.